Call for applications for the 2016-17 Digital and Open Educational Resources
Community of Practice
Curious about effectively using E-texts and other tools in your courses? NTLC is teaming up with
the UW-Stout Open Educational Resources Task Force and Instructional Resources Service to offer a new
Community of Practice (CoP), starting August 2016. This CoP will foster a productive and creative space
where instructors will explore digital and other educational technology tools that support teaching and
learning. The group will focus on open educational resources, digital textbooks, and adaptive (or
personalized) learning tools. While investigating these educational technology tools, the group will
concentrate on two broad areas: Best Practices and Learning Outcome Data.
At the end of this CoP participants will be able to:
1. Delineate best practices for identifying, customizing, implementing, and reflecting on use of
digital and other educational technology tools.
2. Create an implementation and assessment plan for a digital or other educational technology tool
(e.g., open educational resource, digital textbook, adaptive learning), including identification of
the tool, rationale for selection, plan to integrate into classroom using best practices, plan to
assess learning outcomes, process for reflection.
Assistance for data collection, analysis and assessment will be provided. Instructors will be asked
to reflect critically on the use of e-texts and other technology tools and their impact on student
learning. They will share project outcomes with the University community.
Who should apply . . . Instructors who are currently using E-texts in their courses as well as those who
are interested in doing so in the near future.
Facilitators for this CoP will include Michael Mensink (Educational Psychology), Jen Grant
(Chemistry), Seth Barrier (Mathematics and Computer Science) and Peter Olson (English and Literature).
Each of these faculty members are committed users of open educational resources.
If you are interested in being part of this productive, thought-provoking project, please respond to me
at howartonr@uwstout.edu by Wednesday, April 20th. Applications are available at
http://www.uwstout.edu/ntlc/ but space is limited, and we are seeking cross-disciplinary representation.
Instructors who are accepted into this program must attend an August workshop (dates to be
determined) that will provide foundational information about open educational resources, technology
support services on campus, ways in which others have utilized e-texts and what they have learned, and
much more. The workshop is then followed by bi-weekly meetings occurring during the fall and spring
semesters.
We look forward to hearing from you and possibly working with you next year in this exciting CoP.
Participants will receive a financial incentive for their active involvement and completion of the project.
Kind regards,
Renee
Renee D. Howarton, Ph.D.
Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center, Director
430A Robert Swanson Learning Library Center
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751
(715) 232-5196